German writer Franz Kafka's and American J. Salinger's respective masterpieces, The Metamorphosis (1915) and The Catcher in the Rye (1951), examine the universal themes of personal relationships within the context of painful change. Each did that in his own way: Kafka portrayed familial support and sympathy as necessary to the alleviation of pain, while Salinger suggested that to truly grow up is to come to terms with one's relationships and ultimately one's role in society. Though the importance of personal relationships to alleviating pain from change is central to both works, however, the vastly differing tones projected in each contribute to the differences in the meanings of each. .
Kafka's ironic, darkly amused tone as he juxtaposes Gregor's and his family's changing relationship with Gregor's physical change imparts the necessity of familial support and sympathy in dealing with the inevitable pain associated with change. When Gregor's manager visits, the morning of Gregor's metamorphosis, Gregor says, "Sir! Spare my parents!" as he details how he really feels fine and will get to work as soon as possible (12). Gregor's primary motivation for work as his parents is emphasized by the fact that these short exclamations come in the middle of long complex and compound sentences and are thus exaggerated, showing Kafka's amused tone with Gregor's predicament. However, "[o]nly his sister had remained close to Gregor"-and, as was fitting, became the one who took care of him after his transformation (27). Even Grete, however, does so "not with her bare hands, of course" (24). Through "of course," expressing Gregor's bitterness with his situation, Kafka presents Gregor's new disconnect with his sister with a darkly amused tone. However, it is obvious that Grete takes care of Gregor in a perverse duty-bound mindset: Gregor observes that she did not even "[find] it possible to stand being in a room with him with the window closed," which was "terrible for him" (30).
